Thursday, September 6, 2012

Chain Block, a derivative of the Drunkard's Block, is a bit more time consuming to sew but well worth it! Another Craftsy BOM - September's precisely. Precisely is not exactly what I would call the workmanship, but not too bad for the first one. You know how you have to make one to learn what you can do to make it better the next time around? Do you make a test block before sewing blocks for a quilt?

The curves are a bit testy, but not nearly as formidable as first thought. Definitely need to stick to the SCANT 1/4" seams on this block pattern. I chose to sew on the concave side of the block and pin upward rather than downward. That helped greatly in stepping up the speed.

In order to make the intersections so that they didn't have a hard hump I twirled the seam intersections on the backside. To do so I did have to twist the seam midway in the two center blocks of each row. This is something I would have never done in the past but since the twist is less noticeable than the hump I will do it again.

I am celebrating today!

I have officially lost 9 pounds as of today! Everyday it has been at least an hour of cardiovascular and keeping calories below 1200 per day! Eating the right foods does make a difference.

So this evening since I worked late hubby decided he wanted to go to Showmars. Oh my most of the meals are equal to the calories I have been keeping to on a daily basis. I decided on a baked potato and steamed vegetables while my hubby had his Chicken Platter with french fries, breaded fried chicken and cole slaw. I did help him with a couple of his french fries since I think they are the best! I googled their nutrition list before leaving and had a plan of what I could eat and stay within my calorie limit.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Only if the World Wide Web will cooperate! Everyone must be on the internet today since it is Labor Day, especially blogspost and facebook. A holiday and we spend it on the internet - me too - well sort of.

So what is the 23 minutes all about. At I Sew We Sew there is a message about segmenting our projects, cleaning house etc in 23 minutes intervals.

She states: " OUR brains can only handle about23 minutes of any activity at any one time." ( it then begins to wander)

Today will be the second time I have worked in 23 minutes segments. On some projects slightly longer because I wanted to be in a good stopping place. But before I started doing this today I thought I better go to the gym and do my workout for the day - which takes me anywhere between 1- 1 1/2 hours.

Immediately I came home showered, washed my hair, threw clothes from the washer in the dryer, began another load to wash. I went to my hubby and said Hancock Fabric's is having a sale on Kona Cotton. I have made two trips to Mary Jo Fabrics and both times they were out of it! I like to buy it there because regular price is always better than JoAnn's or Hancock's. But a sale at Hancock's is the best price. I need it to complete a quilt that I have had in progress for awhile - just have been waiting to buy more Kona White. They had it! Of course I did have to check to make sure there wasn't any other fabric that I had to have but no. I was proud of myself, I stuck to accomplishing my mission.

Home again. Now to start the 23 minute projects. I worked on the Double Star block featuring flying geese units, on to sweeping the floors, on to making lunch and back to finishing the block, fold and put clothes away and start another load. Finish up the Double Star Block. Now can I write this blog message in 23 minutes? I'm sure it will have a lot of grammatical errors!!

Tah Dah the Double Star Block. - Would you believe as I was typing the title of the block my computer froze!! My alarm hasn't gone off yet - you will know what that means after reading the 23 minute message. I found that I push myself to work faster knowing I have a timer that will go off. I just want to beat it!

While googling to find the 23 minute article I noticed there is part 2 to the 23 minutes. Now to go read it. Check it out here - Part 3.

I am off to another 23 minutes doing what? Beginning Craftsy's September BOMs that features curves.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

I wish I had enough energy to do the other block for August this evening but my bed is calling me.

It was another busy week between work, Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild meeting (fun), doctor's appointment and working out at the gym. Fortunately, I had been already exercising doing cardiovascular and weight bearing exercises. I received the letter from my doctor stating that my cholesterol and blood pressure were slightly elevated. Thank goodness for slightly! That was the first time my blood pressure had not been in the normal range. Now that means it is time to get serious about losing weight. Myfitnessplan.com here I come. I really don't want to take medication when results can be accomplished by exercising and careful eating.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Craftsy July BOM - Dresden Plate is finished! I finished hand stitching the plate to the background while sitting out on my patio on this fair weather afternoon.

The weather has been so unusually pleasant, not too hot or humid with a
nice breeze. The only down side is what is flying in the air that
doesn't agree with me. Allergies means more naps and a need for more sleep! Two naps today, one in the morning and one before dinner.

Last evening I completed the Modern Dresden Plate, also a July Crafsty BOM. Pictures tell all! The snapshot shows fold lines and pulls - back to the ironing board. Which by the way have you tried the new spray starch by Niagara in a non-aerosol bottle? The Fresh Linen scent is very nice!

While running errands on Friday I stopped at my local quilt store, QBee Quilts, to see if they had the aqua fabric with the little darker aqua dots. I was holding my breath hoping it would still be on the shelf. Having shopped most of the store a feeling of defeat and disappointment was growing when all of sudden I spotted it! Sigh of relief! It just so happened to be a second run, something that rarely happens when not a regular stock type fabric.

Now to begin August's BOM. I'm not too far behind! Yikes a new month BOM will be available in only 5 more days.

I haven't been able to keep up with my challenges - Craftsy and Free Motion Quilting, having started an accounting business at home, now officially doing business as Joanne E. Page Accounting Services as of last week. Growth has occurred, all by word of mouth. It has kept me hopping during the last couple months leaving little time for sewing, quilting, gardening and blogging.

This evening I completed another red work Winter Twittering design while watching a couple episodes of Rizzoli and Isles. Eight are completed with only four more to go.

It has been a wonderful week, busy with work, family and friends. Tuesday my oldest son Ty was in town so he took me out for dinner for my birthday. It was so nice to spend an afternoon and evening with him. He came bearing a gift and cards, one from him and the other from my grandsons. The gift is the sweetest little carved angel with wings.

Saturday was FLAWS book club. We visited rather than discuss our book. We all took turns sharing what the latest was in our day to day and four hours later we were still in the parking lot saying our long good-byes. Many laughs and smiles, a fun day with the girls.We have organized and scheduled a full craft day complete with breakfast and lunch, each of us fixing something. The craft item will be these darling stacked fabric pumpkins for a table centerpiece.

After a busy and wild week come this Sunday morning and even after a cuppa of coffee I only wanted to stay home and relax. Relaxing ended up making muffins and Chicken Cordon Bleu in the Crockpot. The muffins are Oatmeal Buttermilk with Berries. I doubled the recipe. What is it when the temperatures begin to cool the desire to bake and cook arises? Want the recipe? Go to ---> Cooks.com
I added berries to the recipe.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was a winner. My hubby paid me many compliments. You can find the recipe if you visit my Pinterest Meats Board.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Craftsy July Block of the Month - Dresden Plate Block
Though it isn't completely finished I'm almost at home plate. I ran out of my background fabric with great hope that my favorite local quilt shop will have it on stock. I made the Dresden plate while watching Bonnie Hunter on live cam while she was working in her quilt studio Saturday evening.
It was fun sewing along with Bonnie as she fielded many text messages while on camera answering quilters questions on various topics.

Craftsy July 2012 Block of the Month - Modern Dresden Plate Block
Sunday evening Bonnie Hunter again was on live cam so I took the opportunity to sew along with her. I can't wait to purchase more background fabric to finish the Dresdens. The first Dresden Plate went together well. The Modern one didn't! I had to do some ripping and re seaming.

Yeah! This was Friday nights accomplishment. Now I only need to cut 666 more pieces of White Kona Cotton which I didn't have on hand. I am so looking forward to going to Mary Jo Fabrics with a friend on Wednesday. I am hoping Mary Jo will have White Kona in stock so I can continue.

Squaring the blocks off has been tedious. . . which warranted buying a new rotary cutter. I'm still trying to decide if I need to buy another. If you happen to stop by my blog please recommend your favorite rotary cutter and why you like it so well.I am soooo looking forward to your comments.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Now have blue and green fabric in my Fabric.com shopping cart. . . more blues and greens in boyish like designs. So much fun like on a scavenger hunt looking for the perfect color and design!

Looking for polka dots, plaids, stripes, checks and anything that looks boyish. . . added a piece that is light lime green with jars filled with bugs, frogs and other assorted. . . that's so boyish. Brings back memories when my nephew collected frogs and gave them new a new home. . . in his pocket. Whew! mine didn't fill their pockets with surprises!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I purchased the little girl on the beach print about 15 years ago, maybe longer. It was never framed until this past weekend but still stood on a wall shelf in my quilting/sewing/office. The frame had another picture in it that I wasn't overly fond of. I couldn't believe how nice my little girl looked in the frame! Even my hubby said it looked good!

I love the colors in the picture, especially the ocean blue and pinkish tan/sand color. The sand was the inspiration color to repaint my walls - finally!

I have been talking about painting for well over a year and purchased a can of paint about 2 months ago. You can't hurry into these things! Prior to painting the walls they were medium blue. I wearied of the color especially since I practically live in it daily.
Now that the walls were painted I was motivated to cover my office chairs, something I have been contemplating for quite awhile too! Fortunately I had enough extra fabric from the window treatments I made many years ago.

I'm getting excited!! Do you realize how many UFOs I have accomplished here? Well they were sort of UFOs since they began in my head many years ago.

I made slip covers for my desk chair, my first attempt ever making them. I have reupholstered several chairs in my day but learned there are some differences between making slip covers and reupholstering furniture.

I started with the back of the chair. Not quite the tight fit I wanted but when making the seat I figured out how to better fit. Learning curve! I will know what to do the next time. For now it is good enough!

How do you like my box skirt? It took a lot of fabric to make them but worthwhile for appearance sake.

Tah Dah! The back of my chair. The back has a box pleat decorated with pearl buttons, ones that were on hand.

On Pinterest there are pictures of slip covered office chairs with a bow added to the back instead of buttons. Though the chairs looked really sweet with the bow I much prefer the simplicity of the pearl buttons.

It took about two and half days to complete the slip cover for the office chair.

There was not enough fabric to slip cover the other office chair, but enough to cover the seat and back.

The second chair took me less than 30 minutes to do. I couldn't figure out how to take the chair apart so Google I went and found where a gentleman couldn't figure out how to take the back a part either. He just pushed the fabric around the back into the plastic back base.

Hunting for something to use to shove the fabric between the front and back I came across a spatula for smoothing wall patching. It worked like a dream, so well that I finished the seat doing the same process for the seat as well.

I changed my furniture around too! It worked out that from either my desk or sewing table I can look out the window into my garden.

Now I have to find a way to have a couple sheets of insulation board delivered to my house so I can make my design wall. It will not fit in my car. I had the length figured out knowing it would fit in my car with the seats folded down. What I didn't take in consideration was the width. The board is 4 ft wide and I need the full width of 2 boards in order to have a nice size design board.

Here is a snapshot of another wall with my cubicles with a couple new baskets to put office supplies in them. I could use one or two more. I purchased all that Lowes' had at the time.

Now I need to get busy finishing my quilt UFO!!

In between painting and slip covering Mike and I made a couple of excursions the last two Mondays in a row! I call them our date Mondays.

Last Monday we visited the Billy Graham Library. We talked about doing this for a couple of years and we finally did! Here we are in front of the home where Billy Graham was raised by his parents with 3 siblings in Charlotte, NC on a dairy farm. The home has been moved twice having been dismantled. Each brick, window, wood flooring slat and etc. had been taken piece by piece.

Interesting the left wing off the living room was Mrs. Graham's office/sewing room! Billy's mom would take milk orders while working in her sewing room.

The inside of the home is quite lovely, though not furnished with the exact furniture but similar.

This is the front of Billy Graham Library. Inside is a bookstore, small restaurant, museum and Billy Graham's office/library where he had over 3,700 books.

His life is a testament of him being sold out for God! He was called to be an evangelist at a very young age. There are pictures of him with many presidents that served while he was preaching during his prime such as: Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Bush Sr., Obama. Yet! as comfortable as he was with presidents and leaders of other countries he was also with common people. He gave Ruth, his wife, a missionary kid in China, more credit for knowing the Bible than he did. All five of Billy's and Ruth's children serve Christ, which Billy gives all credit to Ruth for raising the children well.

Billy's crusades where huge crowds gathered to hear a word of hope and walk forward to receive Christ will be his lasting legacy!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

SewCalGal, the hostess for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge, invited Cindy Needham to be June's free motion instructor. Cindy's incredible talent blows me away with not only her fabulous quilts but with her free motion quilting style and method of teaching! Cindy's work is very detailed yet she is quite laid back in creating her art. Her specialty is quilting with antique linens. Check out Cindy's website. I printed all her pages as they will always be a great read for reviewing and future reference.

The picture to the left is my first practice attempt. More practice needed! Yet I am inspired! I really focused on making my machine hum and purr!

Background music helped me to stay in rhythm. My favorite was listening to Shamrock and Thistle. Try it! You will absolutely find the Irish music perfect for when free motion quilting. Check some of the line ups at NPR Online Radio.

Time to get serious by making a drawing that will work with my fabric size. If you have been following me you know that I have been making each monthly sample into a wall hanging.

I love the idea of filling in around the main design, though my drawing doesn't reflect but one fill in style my finished piece included many more.

Being a novice I was being brave to use color thread that shows all the oops! Maybe I will learn from them.

Cindy Needham thank you so much for giving of your time! I had so much fun making this piece and using your ideas.

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Welcome to my place . . .

where I share my passion for quilting! It all began when I participatied in a block challenge in 2004. Now almost 12 years later I still am making quilts. Needle and thread have long been in my hand since a teenager, beginning with knitting needles and making clothes with the sewing machine.